Youth Conference at Camp Williams

I just got back from Youth Conference. We had about 20 kids come, and we spent two nights at Camp Williams, which is an army base in the Salt Lake valley. We actually started at the American Fork temple with a service project. We did landscaping work for about two hours, spreading bark around the base of trees, trimming bushes, dead-heading flowers, trimming ground cover. Needless to say by the time we were done, we were all pretty tired. We went to Camp Williams afterward and were treated like real soldiers for a while, I don't think I've ever done so many push ups in my life! And I'm pretty good at standing at attention now, but I have a hard time keeping a straight face.

The kids spent a lot of time just having fun. Playing card games.

The Stick game. (My personal favorite.) That's Steve in the middle.

The Hand game. Kaylea and Steve are in this picture.

On our second day there, we all got to go rappelling . I actually tried this when I was first married, (20 years ago) and it really freaked me out, but this time I had a blast!!

I didn't get pictures of myself doing this, but I did it both ways. Going down the rope without the wall was actually my favorite way to go down. I wouldn't even try it this way 20 years ago!! The platform is 45 feet high.

We also did a leadership training course. It was like an obstacle course for the kids, but a little harder than normal. There were several areas that the kids couldn't even finish, but it was amazing to see the leadership strengths of the youth come out.

On our second night there we had a terrible wind storm! While walking back from the mess hall, Kaylea took a picture, proof of how hard the wind was blowing.

It was such a fun experience, I would love to go back. We have some great youth in our area.

Education Week 2009

Steve and I have gone to Education Week in Rexburg Idaho for the past 3 years. It's always nice to get away and be spiritually filled for a few days. It's so nice to see a temple in this small college town. Last year I was able to go to the temple before Education week started, this year we were a little bit too busy. We have been going with our good friends the Tucketts. Troy was raised in Rexburg, and he and Shanna met while attending Rick's College at the time. They are our neighbors and talked us into going our first time three years ago.

I think I enjoyed this year more than I ever have. I really felt like I had some questions answered, and was able to really relax...sometimes that's hard for me when I'm away from the kids.